Undergraduate Course: Critical Social Psychology (PSYL10018)

Course Outline
School	School of Philosophy, Psychology and Language Sciences	College	College of Humanities and Social Science
Credit level (Normal year taken)	SCQF Level 10 (Year 4 Undergraduate)	Availability	Available to all students
SCQF Credits	10	ECTS Credits	5
Summary	Should social psychology be a science and what does it mean to claim that it is? Should social psychologists do experiments? Why do we think scientific knowledge is 'better' than other kinds of knowledge? Is social psychology really social? Why does current social psychological theory focus on cognitive processes to explain social phenomena? What are the implications for our understanding of self? Drawing on ideas from philosophy, history, sociology and linguistics, we examine the nature of social psychological knowledge and how it affects individuals' lives; our assumptions about the nature of self and mind; the often hidden values in and politics of research; and the role of language in all this. Are there other ways of doing social psychology? Do we need a (new) theory of self? Could there be a non-cognitive social psychology? This course aims to discuss, and answer, all these questions. This course includes lectures, in-class and online discussions, and debates about key issues.
Course description	Not entered

Entry Requirements (not applicable to Visiting Students)
Pre-requisites	It is RECOMMENDED that students have passed Research Methods and Statistics 2 (PSYL10126) AND Research Methods & Statistics 3 (PSYL10127)	Co-requisites
Prohibited Combinations		Other requirements	None

Information for Visiting Students
Pre-requisites	Degree major in Psychology and passes in Psychology courses at least to the equivalent of Junior Honours level in Edinburgh. Prior agreement with the 4th Year Honours Course Organiser
High Demand Course?	Yes

Course Delivery Information

Academic year 2017/18, Available to all students (SV1)		Quota: 50
Course Start	Block 1 (Sem 1)
Timetable	Timetable
Learning and Teaching activities (Further Info)	Total Hours: 100 ( Lecture Hours 10, Summative Assessment Hours 2, Programme Level Learning and Teaching Hours 2, Directed Learning and Independent Learning Hours 86 )
Assessment (Further Info)	Written Exam 80 %, Coursework 20 %, Practical Exam 0 %
Additional Information (Assessment)	300 word essay plan (10%) and/or 300 word article summary (10%) and/or presentation (10%); Exam (80%) Visiting Student Variant Assessment (100%) TBC
Feedback	Not entered
Exam Information
Exam Diet	Paper Name		Hours & Minutes
Main Exam Diet S2 (April/May)			1:30

Academic year 2017/18, Part-year visiting students only (VV1)		Quota: 10
Course Start	Block 1 (Sem 1)
Timetable	Timetable
Learning and Teaching activities (Further Info)	Total Hours: 100 ( Lecture Hours 10, Programme Level Learning and Teaching Hours 2, Directed Learning and Independent Learning Hours 88 )
Assessment (Further Info)	Written Exam 0 %, Coursework 100 %, Practical Exam 0 %
Additional Information (Assessment)	300 word essay plan (10%) and/or 300 word article summary (10%) and/or presentation (10%); Exam (80%) Visiting Student Variant Assessment (100%) TBC
Feedback	Not entered
No Exam Information

Learning Outcomes
On completion of this course, the student will be able to: You should be able to do at least three of the following: - Describe and assess social psychology's claim to be a science, and evaluate its use of experiments. Discuss social psychology's paradigm, conceptual and moral/political crises. Apply arguments from science studies, Foucault's work, and 'the turn to language' to evaluate psychology's methods. Describe psychology's contribution to the 'government of individuals'. Assess efforts to reconstruct social psychology's practice and/or subject.